He was furious when it was ME who should have been furious with HIM. So I've learned my lesson. I'm not going to write about real people any more.

Not that I have been. Any resemblance between the characters and persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

But just say, for the sake of argument, that someone you knew, a member of the opposite sex, had been your friend platonically, for forty years. And then that person had a falling out with you over the use of a three letter word. And just say that the member of-the-opposite-sex-who-had-been-your-platonic-friend-for forty-years, got mad at you and said that he didn't read any of your blog postings because he was so mad.

How would YOU feel? Furious no doubt. So you just might, might, might write something, exaggerating here and there, about people who are similar to the member of-the-opposite-sex-who-had-been-your-platonic-friend-for forty-years. Writing with a view to being amusing, with a dash of reality thrown in for good measure.

And then just say, that the VERY person who had said he wasn't reading any of your postings because of the one allegedly misused word, actually read the very posting where you wrote sort-of about him, and got even madder.

And then just say, you broke up. Yep, the time has come. Like two teenagers we've called it quits. Friends no more.

When my birthday comes round next May, the usual lone message in my in-box will not be there. It is a pity that HIS birthday comes round before mine - I will have to be the first one to NOT say "happy birthday". In that case it is I who will look petty.

But what if I DO say "happy birthday" and then come next May, HE doesn't? I would be really furious.

What's a girl to do?

One thought strikes me. I could say "happy birthday" in an American sort of way. That would really annoy him, but would get me out of being the first one NOT to say "happy birthday". But how DOES one say happy birthday in an American sort-of way? Hang on, I've got it. I could say, "Have an awesome birthday!" Or "Have a real awesome birthday." Even better.

3 comments:

Breaking up is always hard to do, but perhaps more so between people who have been friends, whether that be male/male, female/female or male/female. Millions upon millions of songs have been written about breaking up and heartache at the loss of romantic love, but I can't think of one about a friendship breakup, especially one of long-standing.

Like you, I've "broken up" with a few friends this year and it's a difficult place to be. People grow apart and there is nothing left to do together or even to say to one another. Old lovers who have become friends, who once meant the world to me have become, dare I say, totally redundant. But there is still pain and a loss of understanding why this should be so.

Maybe we are growing old, maybe it was meant to be, or maybe Basil was right, and they are all from Barcelona!

One strange aspect of this sort of breakup is that it seems to extend backwards in time. No matter what innocent good times you may have shared in the past, they are all now tainted with the retrospective realization of the now ex-friends new status as a filthy swine or bastard or whatever. I know that my circle of true friends has become smaller and smaller over the years. If I live long enough there may come a time when the circle has completely vanished and there is just me left as the dot in the middle. At that point I will have a furious argument with myself and disappear in a puff of smoke!

I have made it a cardinal rule that I never contact old girl friends. Period. 1st. It looks like trolling.2nd. Why piss off your best friend - your partner.And don't say women (and men) aren't jealous, 'cause they are.Bill